Reinforcement: Improving Behavior One Interaction at a Time

Pediatricians and educators tell parents to “reward good behavior”, but what does that really mean? Reward is often used as a lay term for the behavioral principle of reinforcement, but understanding what reinforcement really is and how to use it effectively is essential for increasing children’s desirable behavior. That is because our reactions and other results of behavior determine whether children’s behavior will continue and increase. The purpose of this article is to define reinforcement and provide tips for maximizing its power to produce positive change.

Reinforcement is defined as providing or removing events in order to increase behavior. There are a couple important parts to that definition. First, reinforcement can be either providing things children want or removing things they do not want. Second, reinforcers are described as “events”. Events can include a wide array of things – not just praise or goodies. They can include social interactions, items or activities, avoiding or delaying unpleasant demands, or experiencing conditions that just feel good. Reinforces can also include events that have been paired with these outcomes (e.g., money, tokens, success at a difficult task).

To illustrate, some of the following events might be really reinforcing to children:

Advertisement:

Advertisement:

Listening attentively as your child talks about anything he wants

Earning checks or dots toward a sleepover or trip to the mall or movies

Helping your child to complete chores or just letting her off the hook

Meme Hieneman is a consultant with Positive Behavior Support Applications. She has a Ph.D. in Special Education and is nationally certified as a behavior analyst. She has published a variety of articles, chapters, and books including “Parenting with Positive Behavior Support: A Practical Guide to Resolving Your Child’s Difficult Behavior.”
In her professional career, Meme has worked with children with severe behavioral challenges and their families for more than 25 years. She was a group home manager, behavior specialist for a school district, staff member for a program assisting families and professionals of children with autism, director of a state-wide project helping schools to implement positive behavior support, co-training coordinator for the National Research and Training Center on PBS, and research director of the Positive Family Intervention Project at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.